Man who took hostages at Clinton campaign center in Rochester to be released from prison

By Liz Markhlevskaya

lmark@fosters.com

Friday, October 19, 2012

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LeEland Eisenberg

ROCHESTER — The man who took several hostages at Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign headquarters in 2007 will be free from prison in several months.Despite objection by County Attorney Thomas Velardi during a hearing on Wednesday, Judge John Lewis approved work release for 51-year-old Leeland Eisenberg, who was convicted of taking hostages and being involved in an hours-long standoff with police in 2007, while falsely claiming he had a bomb.After Eisenberg served his yearlong sentence at the House of Corrections in connection to the hostage situation, he was put on probation, which he violated twice. In November 2009 he failed to charge his GPS device, and in February 2010 he used cocaine and alcohol, Velardi said.After his second probation violation, Eisenberg was sentenced to 3½ to 7 years in state prison, to be eligible for parole in August 2013.On Sept. 28, N.H. State Prison issued a notice of work release to Strafford County Superior Court, stating the Prison Classification Board, upon considering Eisenberg’s background, institutional adjustment and prognosis, “believes the likelihood of rehabilitation will be enhanced by participation with the Work Release Program.”Through the work release program, Eisenberg would be released into a halfway house, most likely in the Manchester area, in the next several months, said Velardi.In response to the work release notice, Velardi filed an objection earlier this month, stating Eisenberg “made a spectacle of the court” and that, “Some offenders, for the good of the community, need to remain in total incarceration. This defendant is one of those offenders.”Velardi’s objection also references Eisenberg’s prior motion to amend his sentence, which claims Eisenberg had suffered two heart attacks in prison and had been declared “permanently and totally disabled.” The objection states it’s unknown how Eisenberg can qualify for work release if he’s too disabled to work.Eisenberg’s motion to amend his sentence, which was filed in February, was denied the following month; by statute, inmates must serve two-thirds of their sentence before petitioning for sentence modification.During Wednesday’s hearing on the prison’s notice of work release at the Strafford County Superior Court, Velardi emphasized that Eisenberg had already failed to comply with the court’s conditions twice previously. “I couldn’t in good conscience say ‘let’s try it a third time,’” said Velardi.Velardi said that the halfway house is a good tool for transitioning prisoners from total incarceration to complete freedom, but in Eisenberg’s case he’s concerned about the safety of the public. “When he gets stressed he drinks, and when he drinks he hurts people,” said Velardi, noting that Eisenberg had been drinking all day when the hostage crisis took place in November 2007. Eisenberg was also requesting rum during the standoff, said Velardi.Velardi recalled that after the hostage situation in downtown Rochester, during which Eisenberg strapped road flares to his chest and took Clinton’s campaign staff hostage, Eisenberg was also indicating that his mental health conditions are being ignored and he wasn’t getting the services he needed.After the hour-long hearing on Wednesday, Judge Lewis found no objection to the notice of work release.“I think the judge took the time to get all the information he could,” said Velardi. “Mr. Eisenberg will have his chance to prove that I’m wrong. And I hope he does.”He said Eisenberg will be on parole for at least three and a half years after being released from the halfway house.Currently, Eisenberg is in a minimum security section of the state prison, where he also works as a cook. Throughout his time at the prison, he has had about six minor violations, none of which have involved serious offenses such as fighting or stealing, said Velardi.